


Once Upon a Dream

by IfThisIsLoveIDoNotWantIt



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:48:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27531025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IfThisIsLoveIDoNotWantIt/pseuds/IfThisIsLoveIDoNotWantIt
Summary: Ellana never anticipated becoming the Herald of Andraste. She doesn't even believe in Andraste. But she soon came to realize that things and people come into your life for a reason. And sometimes, they aren't always good.
Relationships: Female Lavellan/Solas





	Once Upon a Dream

Out of all the ways Ellana thought she might die, this wasn't it. The ground was ice cold to the touch, her body aching in ways she never realized it could ache. She struggled to piece together exactly what just happened. 

Haven was attacked. There was a dragon. She caused a bloody avalanche. And now she's … here. Here being somewhere in the miles of tunnels below Haven. Tunnels that only led further into the Frostback mountains and further from civilization. Further from her friends. _Her friends._ Ellana's heart ached as surely as her body did. Surely she had bought them enough time to escape. The only question now was, how would she find them? 

She struggled to her feet. The cavern was bathed in an eerie light that she realized was coming from The Mark. _The Mark._ Ellana looked down at her hand, as if to check that it were still there. As if in all of this commotion she could have lost it. She hadn't obviously. It was still there, pulsing with green light, setting her nerves on fire. She took deep breaths. _Good._ She told herself. As part of the Dalish she was instructed to hold on to her pain, to control it and not let it control you. Pain was necessary. Pain was useful. Pain meant that you were still alive. 

Ellana was still alive and she intended to keep it that way. First step, find her friends.

* * *

The wind whipped outside of the cavern. The snow it carried stung as surely as if she'd been caught in a mage's spell. All she could see was gray in every direction, occasionally interrupted by a tree. Clouds obscured the night sky. She couldn't even find the moon. She had no way of knowing which way to go. 

The wind cut light a knife through her armor, it knocked her back to reality. She couldn't stay here. To linger would mean death. If she wanted to find her friends, she would have to choose. 

Without any particular destination in mind, onward she trudged. It was slow going in the wind and the cold and the snow. Ellana felt as though she were fighting an uphill battle just to keep moving. She had to assume that her friends would have no other goal than to put as much distance between themselves and Haven as possible. They had no allies, no where to turn, their only strategy was to keep moving forward. She hoped she was following their footsteps.

* * *

How long had it been? Hours? Minutes? Ellana could have been at this for days for all she knew. She could not tell the time, nor whether she was heading in the right direction. Whatever that was. Her muscles ached. The deep snow made rough going. 

Where was she? Where was she going? And what would she find when she got there? Were her friends even still alive? 

After all she had accomplished, was it her fate to perish in the wilderness? Frozen to death in the snow? 

Ellana didn't want to die. She wasn't supposed to die like this. She'd always imagined dying old and content, surrounded by friends and family. In the Dalish, no one died alone. And in even in death, one would join the company of the ancestors. How was she supposed to find her way to the afterlife in a place like this? Would her ghost haunt these mountains until her body was properly buried. These were the thoughts that rattled around her head. 

_Yes. Nothing but happy thoughts to keep me going._ She thought. What else was she supposed to do. _Nothing. The only thing to do is to keep moving. If I stop to rest. I'll never get back up._

* * *

_This is it._ She couldn't go on anymore. Time no longer had any meaning. She couldn't even tell how far she had travelled.

The only thing she knew was pain and that it was slipping away. _Funny._ Ellana thought. _It doesn't even hurt anymore._

Her hand had stopped throbbing a thousand steps ago when she lost feeling in her hands and feet. Her muscles stopped aching a hundred steps ago when it became hard to breathe. And now, she wasn't even cold. In fact she was very, very warm. _Sleepy. I need rest._

She collapsed. The snow didn't burn anymore, it felt soft to the touch. A perfect place to rest. _I'll lay down, just for a bit. Catch my breath, then I'll keep moving._ That sounded nice. That sounded perfect.

But wait. What was that? Were those … lights? Lights off in the distance like lightning bugs. 

It was as if reality came flooding back. _If I stay here I'll die. I need to get to my friends._ The lights were so close. Just at the bottom of this valley. But it was no use. She couldn't move. _Cassandra, Josephine, Cullen, Varric._ They were all down there waiting for her. 

As she drifted into darkness, she could've sworn she could hear their voices. 


End file.
